Saddam team 'to take belongings'
It looks likely that Saddam Hussein may be executed as early as this weekend with the news that his lawyers have been asked to collect his personal effects. The imminent hanging is further underlined by the fact that Saddam has been allowed to meet his half brothers Sabawi Ibrahim and Watban Ibrahim who are also held in custody.
All indications are that the execution will come sooner rather than later:
The US are expected to hand him over to the Iraqi Authorities on Saturday although the rumours are that he has already been handed over. However, the US are refusing to confirm or deny that any handover has taken place.A senior administration official said that the execution would probably not take place in the next 24 hours, but that the timing would be swift. “It may be another day or so,” the official said.
Another senior administration official said later Thursday night that Iraqi officials had told the White House to expect the execution on Saturday, Baghdad time.
The confusion surrounding Saddam Hussein's fate comes a day after his lawyer urged the international community to stop him being handed over to the Iraqi authorities for execution.As always with Saddam, I am left stunned by his arrogance. The man who stepped out of a hole in the ground "prepared to negotiate" now says he is ready to die "as a sacrifice". Once again, he implies that he somehow has some say in the proceedings. After all, a sacrifice is something that one willingly makes, it is not something that is forced upon you against your will.
Mr Dulaimi said he was a prisoner of war and should not be handed to his enemies.
In a letter written from his prison cell, Saddam Hussein said he was ready to die as a "sacrifice" for Iraq.
Just as when he was arrested he failed to appreciate that some 140,000 foreign troops in control of your own country left a deposed dictator with very little to negotiate with, he now seems to be in some way unaware that he will be hanged whether he decides to agree with this "sacrifice" or not.
However, bizarrely, he is right in as much as some Iraqis will now view him as a martyr. It's a botch up of astonishing proportions that the US should have found themselves elevating such a person to such a status.
According to Iraqi state TV, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said that there will be no delay in carrying out Saddam Hussein's death sentence.
"No-one can oppose the decision to execute the criminal Saddam," Mr Maliki was quoted by AFP as saying. "Those who reject the execution of Saddam are undermining the dignity of Iraq's martyrs."
I wonder if Mr Maliki is even aware that the person undermining the dignity of Iraq's martyrs is himself. He undermines them by allowing Saddam's name to be added to their number.
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tag: Iraq war, Saddam Hussein, execution, hanging
4 comments:
Hi Kel,
Excellent post. Everything was swift in Iraq excepyt victory; the invasion, the handing of the government to Iraqi's, the judgement of Saddam and now the hanging. It is a shame that Iraqi's were robbed from a fundamental right, the right to judge their tyrant only after having uncovered the whole truth through a honest trial and not the legal farce that they were served. But after all they are Iraqi's so anything goes...
Thanks Sophia,
The trial was a farce, as the Americans were in charge and anxious - not only for a guilty verdict, which was assured even had they given him a fair trial - but they were also anxious that he didn't get to say too much about who armed him with those weapons that he used against the Kurds and the Iranians.
That level of truth would have been too much for Americans to bear.
Kel,
I am so sorry for all the errors in my previous comment, I must have been a bit asleep, it was just after my return and I had a lot of reading to do on the blogs...I linked to one of your dec. 29th post on the execution of Saddam.
No sweat Sophia,
I am always more interested in what people have to say than in the odd typo.
And thanks for the link!
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